World

Clinton To IRA: Maintain Peace

October 21, 2000 / 12:26 AM EDT / CBS/AP

President Clinton appealed Friday for Northern Ireland's rival factions to stand by their 1998 peace accord, even though he admitted it was "straining under intense criticism."

His plea, published on the front page of Northern Ireland's main evening newspaper, the Belfast Telegraph, came a week before a vote within the province's major Protestant party that could pull the plug on the joint Catholic-Protestant government.

"I hope to be able to visit Northern Ireland soon, and to confirm that the will of the people is being heeded," wrote Clinton, who visited the British-linked province in 1995 and 1998.

Local politicians have been told to prepare for a possible Clinton visit this December — but only if the power-sharing government forged under the Good Friday pact is still working.

The deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, John Taylor, predicted Friday that the four-party coalition would collapse by Christmas because of the Irish Republican Army's continued unwillingness to disarm. The coalition government cannot work without Ulster Unionist participation.

The Protestant party narrowly approved a vote last May to work alongside the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party after the outlawed IRA promised to disarm gradually in cooperation with international inspectors, a long-elusive goal of peacemaking.

The IRA permitted inspectors to visit three secret arms bunkers in June, but didn't let them take any away weapons for destruction. IRA representatives have since met with disarmament authorities just once. Sinn Fein has suggested the IRA would go no further unless Britain moved more quickly in dismantling army installations and reforming the province's mostly Protestant police.

Taylor said his supporters had cooperated in government with Sinn Fein "to prove to the world that Sinn Fein-IRA had no intention of decommissioning" weapons in return. Since this seemed to be the case, he said, the coalition "will come to an end."

Clinton didn't specifically mention the Ulster Unionists' Oct. 28 meeting to vote on hardening their power-sharing policy — a test that could topple Nobel peace laureate David Trimble as the party's compromise-minded leader. But Clinton's concerns were obvious.

The Good Friday pact, he wrote, "is working, but it is straining under intense criticism. I know that many in the unionist community feel deeply uncomfortable with changes relating to security and have concerns that the right to express British identity is being attacked."

He insisted the Good Friday accord underscored "respect for British sovereignty in Northern Ireland," and appealed for politicians not to give in to "the heat of the moment."

"It is human nature to take the good for granted and to focus on our frustrations. Giving in to those frustrations would be a tragic mistake, with terrible consequences,"> he added.

Clinton said he would "look forward to further timely progress" on IRA disarmament.

He also pledged that U.S. authorities would crack down on Irish-American supporters of dissident IRA members who are trying to unravel the outlawed group's 1997 cease-fire.

The dissidents, dubbed the Real IRA by media, have resumed bomb attacks on British army and police installations and rail lines this year. They killed 29 people in a 1998 car bomb attack — the bloodiest terrorist strike in Northern Irish history.